Law, Power, and Justice

IN 1999, “TERRORIST” ATTACKS LEGITIMATED CHECHEN SECOND WAR

NIGHTLY NEWS NOTES

RUSSIA

• MSNBC
• Brennan: “It’s a very credible claim.”  ISIS-K has long felt that Russia has suppressed Muslims in Syria and Afghanistan and various parts of Russia.  The fact that they mowed down individuals and kill as many people as possible fits their MO.  It looks like it was planned for some time.
• Former Ambassador Michael McFaul: Ukraine does not fight like this.  Look at the pattern.  They are striking targets inside Russia, but they have never done terror attacks. 
• KYIV INDEPENDENT
• Putin dismissed US warnings about attack saying it was “black mail.”
• TASS reported on March 19 that Putin said the warning was a Western provocation.
• Putin was reported as saying: “All of this resembles outright blackmail and an intention to intimidate and destabilize our society.”
• The shooting occurred three days later.
• The gunmen were unchallenged on various social media posted videos. 
• Ukrainian military intelligence called the shooting a “deliberate provocation by Putin’s special services.”  The attack was intended, they maintained, to justify “even tougher” attacks on Ukraine and total mobilization in Russia.
• Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR): “The public execution of people in Moscow should be understood as Putin’s threat of an even greater escalation and expansion of the war.”  “The unimpeded movement of a group of militants with assault rifles through the center of Moscow, as well as a lot of other indisputable evidence, indicate that the shooting in Crocus City Hall was organized by the Russian special services.” 
• In 1999, a series of bombings rocked Russia and were blamed on Chechen separatists.  Speculation has continued that Putin and Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) orchestrated the bombings to boost Putin’s popularity and legitimize the second Chechen war.
• Just hours after the attacks today, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned of retaliation against Ukraine if “terrorists of the Kyiv regime” were found to be responsible.  They must be “mercilessly destroyed….Death for death.”
• Meanwhile Russia launched another large-scale drone and missile attack against Ukrainian cities, aiming at the energy infrastructure.